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Economy of Anguilla


The economy of Anguilla depends heavily on luxury tourism, offshore banking, lobster fishing, and remittances from emigrants. Due to its small size, few natural resources, and reliance on tourism and foreign direct investment, Anguilla is vulnerable to external economic conditions in the United States, Canada and Europe. Therefore, economic growth in Anguilla can be very volatile. Anguilla's currency is the East Caribbean dollar, though the US dollar is also widely accepted.[2] The exchange rate is fixed to the US dollar at US$1 = EC$2.70.

Economy of Anguilla
CurrencyEast Caribbean dollar (XCD)
1 US$ = 2.7 XCD (2014)
1 April - 31 March
Trade organisations
OECS, CARICOM (associate)
Statistics
GDP-8.5% (2009 est.)
GDP per capita
$12,200 (2008 est.)
GDP by sector
agriculture: (2.6%) industry: (24.4%) services: (73%) (2014 est.)
3.1% (2014 est.)
Population below poverty line
23% (2002 est.)
Labour force
6,049 (2001 est.)
Labour force by occupation
agriculture: 4%, industry: 21%, services: 75% (2000 est.)
Unemployment8% (2002 est.)
Main industries
tourism, boat building, offshore financial services
External
Exports$11.7 million (2014 est.) [1]
Export goods
lobster, fish, livestock, salt, concrete blocks, rum
Main export partners
 United Kingdom N/A%
 United States N/A%
 Puerto Rico N/A%
 Saint Martin N/A%
Imports$138.3 million (2014 est.)
Import goods
fuels, foodstuffs, manufactures, chemicals, trucks, textiles
Main import partners
 United States N/A%
 Puerto Rico N/A%
 United Kingdom N/A%
 Trinidad and Tobago N/A%
Public finances
$8.8 million (1998)
Economic aid$9  million (2004)
All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars.

History

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Further information: History of Anguilla

In the 19th century, Anguilla's major product was salt produced by evaporation on the shores of the island's lakes, which was exported to the United States.[3][4] Sugar, cotton, sweetcorn, and tobacco were also grown.[4] By the beginning of World War I, the island had been almost entirely deforested by charcoal-burners. Most of the land was held by black sustenance farmers producing sweet potatoes, peas, beans, and corn and rearing sheep and goats. Salt continued to be exported to nearby Saint Thomas, along with phosphate of lime and cattle.[5]

Modern Anguilla has focused its development on tourism, its related construction industry, and offshore finance. The first comprehensive financial services legislation was enacted in late 1994.

The economy, and especially the tourism sector, suffered a setback in late 1995 due to the effects of Hurricane Luis in September. Hotels were hit particularly hard but a recovery occurred the following year. Another economic setback occurred during the aftermath of Hurricane Lenny in 2000.[6] Before the 2008 worldwide crisis, the economy of Anguilla was growing strongly, especially the tourism sector, which was driving major new developments in partnerships with multi-national companies. Anguilla's tourism industry received a major boost when it was selected to host the World Travel Awards in December 2014. Known as "the Oscars of the travel industry", the awards ceremony was held at the CuisinArt Resort and Spa and was hosted by Vivica A. Fox. Anguilla was voted the World's Leading Luxury Island Destination from a short list of top-tier candidates such as St. Barts, the Maldives, and Mauritius.[7] The economy, including the tourism sector, suffered its biggest setback in late 2017 due to the effects of Hurricane Irma in September, which was the most powerful hurricane to hit the island and which caused major material damage of $320 million. A lot of infrastructure was damaged, which was repaired in 2018/19 and the economy began to recover in 2019. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020/21, caused a setback in the economy.[8][9][10]

Anguilla's financial system comprises seven banks,[11] two money services businesses, more than 40 company managers, more than 50 insurers, 12 brokers, more than 250 captive intermediaries, more than 50 mutual funds, and eight trust companies. In 2013, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the regulator of Anguilla's banks, took control over Anguilla's indigenous banks[12] and in 2016, fleeced the foreign depositors in order to prop up Anguilla's banking system and make local depositors whole[13].

Anguilla has become a popular tax haven, having no capital gains, estate, profit, sales, or corporate taxes. In April 2011, faced with a mounting deficit, it introduced a 3% "Interim Stabilisation Levy", Anguilla's first form of income tax. Anguilla also has a 0.75% property tax.[14]

Anguilla aims to obtain 15% of its energy from solar power to become less reliant on expensive imported diesel. The Climate & Development Knowledge Network is helping the government gather the information it needs to change the territory's legislation, so that it can integrate renewables into its grid. Barbados has also made good progress in switching to renewables, but many other Small Island Developing States are still at the early stages of planning how to integrate renewable energy into their grids. "For a small island we're very far ahead," said Beth Barry, Coordinator of the Anguilla Renewable Energy Office. "We've got an Energy Policy and a draft Climate Change policy and have been focusing efforts on the question of sustainable energy supply for several years now. As a result, we have a lot of information we can share with other islands."[15]

According to a Bloomberg report, due to a skyrocketing interest in artificial intelligence, Anguilla was expected to profit in 2023 from a surge in demand for web addresses ending with the country's top-level domain .ai. The total number of registrations of .ai domain names had already doubled in 2022, and according to Vince Cate, who has managed the top-level domain, Anguilla will bring in as much as $30 million in domain-registration fees for 2023.[16]

Industry

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Major industries in Anguilla include tourism, boat building, and offshore financial services. In 1997 there was an industrial production growth rate of 3.1%.

42.6 GWh of electricity are consumed, produced entirely by fossil fuel.

Agricultural products include small quantities of tobacco, vegetables, and cattle raising.

In 2011 Anguilla became the fifth-largest jurisdiction for captive insurance, behind Bermuda, Cayman, Vermont and Guernsey.[17] The captive industry plays an ever-increasing and important part of Anguilla's financial services industry. Captive management firms, including Capstone Associated Services, have staffed offices in Anguilla in order to service the fast-growing captive insurance industry.

Notes

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  1. ^ "CIA – The World Factbook". Cia.gov. Retrieved 2015-06-30.
  2. ^ "Encyclopedia Britannica – Anguilla". Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  3. ^ Martin (1839).
  4. ^ a b EB (1878).
  5. ^ EB (1911).
  6. ^ South America, Central America and the Caribbean 2003 (11 ed.). Routledge. 2002. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-85743-138-4.
  7. ^ "Vivica A. Fox Brings Hollywood Glam To The 'World's Leading Luxury Island Destination'". HuffPost. 17 December 2014. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  8. ^ "FLASHBACK: HOW HAS ANGUILLA PROGRESSED SINCE HURRICANE IRMA IN SEPTEMBER 2017?". The Anguillan. September 13, 2021. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  9. ^ John P. Cangialosi; Andrew S. Latto; Robbie J. Berg (March 9, 2018). Hurricane Irma (AL112017) (PDF) (Report). Tropical Cyclone Report. National Hurricane Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 31, 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
  10. ^ James Daniell; Bernhard Mühr; Antonios Pomonis; Andreas Schäfer; Susanna Mohr. Hurricane Irma: Report No. 1, Focus on Caribbean up until 8th September 2017 (PDF) (Report). Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 9, 2017. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
  11. ^ "List of Banks in Anguilla". Archived from the original on 7 May 2017. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  12. ^ "Eastern Caribbean Central Bank takes over Anguilla's largest two banks".
  13. ^ "Caribbean regulator accused of 'fleecing' foreign depositors". Archived from the original on 24 January 2021.
  14. ^ "Tax TIES: Anguilla – Overview and introduction". kpmg.com. KPMG. Archived from the original on 28 September 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
  15. ^ Fry, Carolyn. 28 June 2012. Anguilla moves towards cleaner energy Archived 29 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Metz, Rachel (2023-08-31). "AI Startups Create Digital Demand for Anguilla's Website Domain Name". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 2023-08-31. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
  17. ^ 4. Property & Casualty 360, May 3, 2012, http://www.propertycasualty360.com/2012/05/03/831b-captives-small-option-is-increasingly-big-id

References

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  • Martin, Robert Montgomery (1839), "Chapter XIV.—Anguilla.", Statistics of the Colonies of the British Empire in the West Indies, South America, North America, Asia, Austral-Asia, Africa, and Europe; comprising the Area, Agriculture, Commerce, Manufactures, Shipping, Custom Duties, Population, Education, Religion, Crime, Government, Finances, Laws, Military Defence, Cultivated and Waste Lands, Emigration, Rates of Wages, Prices of Provisions, Banks, Coins, Staple Products, Stock, Moveable and Immoveable Property, Public Companies, &c. of Each Colony; with the Charters and the Engraved Seals. From the Official Records of the Colonial Office., London: William H. Allen & Co., p. 102
  • Baynes, T. S., ed. (1878), "Anguilla" , Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 2 (9th ed.), New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 46–47
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911), "Anguilla" , Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 2 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 42–43

Attribution:   This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA.

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